From the Columbia River Knife and Tools ID Works workshop comes another middle range multitool. Designers Tom Stokes a mechanical engineer from the University of Virginia with over 20 years of experience together with dedicated creative guy Launce Barber are the ones responsible for creating and patenting of the Zilla Tool Jr.

CRKT Zilla Tool Jr. characteristics are few tools and excellent design. Dimensions and main characteristics of this multitool are:

The tool comes in a nice nylon pouch with velcro enclosure which can be worn vertically, also on itself Zilla Jr. has a pocket clip that is great for pocket carry or bag. Pocket clip is set in one place and can not be moved, and when used it’s a plier down position. The body of Zilla Jr. is made of zytel plastic, though it’s not too refined and precious, but zytel provides to tool exactly what you need, good grip and light weight.

The first tool is pliers which are spring assisted. Pliers head sticks out of the tool, and they are not folding in any way. Plier handle follows the form of the tool nicely. Deployment of pliers is somewhat neat, by pulling a small button on tool body you deploy pliers with pleasant snap sound. They are needle nose pliers with flat portion at the end, followed by rounded part for nuts and bolts, and wire cutters and strippers at the end.

On the other side of the tool is knife blade, which can also be opened with one hand pulling flipper on top of the handle when the knife is closed. The blade is secured by liner lock system. Blade itself is a spear point shape, hollow grinded and partially serrated. The blade shape proved up to many tasks, but it is not intended for heavier tasks while beeing so thin at the point, which can prove to be a weakness at heavier duties. The knife is razor sharp out of the box.

On the same side with the blade there is magnetic bit holder. Bits are hidden in the Zytel handle on each side in their holders. Zilla Tool Jr. has two bits standard flat and philips. Due to the size of the tools CRKT had to resort to non-standard dimensions of bits, so they can be replaced by standard 1/4inch bits.

Overall, after several weeks of using this multitool, and some medium and moderate tasks they have encountered, Zilla Tool Jr. proved to be a serious competitor in its class. I ended up with ease to some home jobs mostly related to electrical appliances, and Zilla Tool Jr. finished them easy. It feels very nice in hand, and it is intuitive to work with. Blade proved to be very capable, although there is still a risk of damage due to its thickness. Overall CRKT Zilla Tool Jr. is a very convenient tool for all home and light to moderately heavy work, as well as camping, hunting, fishing and outdoors.